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Welcome to my blog, where one may find all sorts of random, hopefully amusing tidbits about food & other things.

June 12, 2011

almond bundt cake.

I've been making a lot of things with almonds recently. Good thing I can pronounce it now.

I bought two Solo Almond Cake & Pastry Fillings a while ago because they were 2 for $5. That was actually a good deal though, I know sometimes two-fors are meant to drag people in and make them buy things they don't need simply because it's on sale. I think that sort of thing has gradually, in this consumerist nation, turned into human nature. The quality has joined the ranks of greed and eating as much as possible to store food for possible hibernation should any future disasters occur. And it's hard to fight human nature. Just ask my waistline. (just kidding)

So my mom and I were sick of how full the fridge was of random things. A small container with one egg white leftover from something I had baked. Another smaller container containing no more than a tablespoon of chopping onions leftover from a topping of some dinner. A large container barely filled with mango pulp, and really? an empty jar of strawberry preserves? Who doesn't throw out ... oh wait no, that was me. My bad.

Anyway, we tackled the pantry and cabinet areas after the fridge situation improved a little. My mom showed me the 12 oz can of almond filling and I peeled off the wrapper to see the recipes that were given. Almond Bundt Cake yummm. Wait, 2 sticks of butter and 2 cups flour? Way too high butter to flour ratio. 1 cup sugar in addition to the sugar in the can? Uh have to change that slightly.

So I adjusted the recipe so that my family would not die upon eating it, and came up with a pretty good almond cake! It is not overly dense, and the crust on the day it is made ... to die for. It makes an excellent cake for a fancy dinner party, but can also (especially with my adjustments) be eaten with coffee or tea at 4pm, like my grandparents did.

Enjoy the pictures! It was a gorgeous day, so I made this cake outside.

Do you see how the yellow color intensified?

Almond Bundt Cake adapted from the Solo recipe.
note: I used almost all whole wheat flour in my recipe, as well as about 2 tablespoons of bran. Adding the bran was no problem, but that much whole wheat along with the reduction of butter and sugar made the cake a tiny bit dry. So I would not use more than 1 cup whole wheat flour.

1 cup whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tspn baking powder

1/2 tspn salt

1 tspn oil, melted butter, or ghee

1/4 cup (or 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup neutral oil

3/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 (12 oz) can Solo Almond Cake & Pastry Filling

1/4 cup milk (any) or buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F or 325 degrees F for a convection oven. Grease a Bundt pan well with butter and flour or a generous amount of spray.

Mix the flours together. Add a small amount (about a tspn) of melted butter, oil, or melted ghee to the flour. Mix the fat evenly with the flour, until the flour can hold its shape when squeezed in your hand. Refer to picture above for reference.

Add the baking powder and salt to the flour. Set aside.

Cream the butter, oil, and sugar until well-mixed and light.

Add eggs one at a time. Beat well afte each addition.

Beat in the can of almond filling.

Add dry mixture to the wet mixture, alternating with the milk. Begin and end with flour. Go in this sequence: flour, milk, flour, milk, flour.

Transfer batter to the Bundt pan. Bake 40-50 minutes. A tester inserted all the way down into the cake should come out clean. Remove from oven.

Let the cake cool in the pan for about ten minutes. Then invert onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

Optional: Top with an almond glaze of about 1/2 - 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar, 1/4 tspn almond extract, and enough milk to make a thick glaze. Sprinkle with toasted almonds, if desired.